HARROWELLS LIMITED

My mum and I couldn't be more pleased with the service we have received. My mum wanted a discretionary trust to protect her personal injury settlement as she is vulnerable, in addition to a few other reasons.

Ed Taylor got back to our request straight away and as soon as we spoke to him on the phone we immediately felt comfortable, he reassured my mum regarding a few things and then from there we knew it was the right choice to go with Harrowells. Initially we must've spoken to about 40 different firms and that is no exaggeration. They either took too long to reply, quoted us a ridiculously high fixed fee or just came across really difficult in general, it just didn't feel right.

Before calling Harrowells I had a look at their reviews and I was a little hesitant as they're not all 4-5 stars, but sometimes you just have to see for yourself, make an enquiry and if it feels good - go with it. We have no complaints whatsoever, Ed advised my mum every step of the way to the best of his expertise but without being forceful, he struck the perfect balance between advising and following her wishes and that is precisely what a great solicitor does. In the end he delivered exactly what she required, we couldn't be more satisfied.

Our family used Harrowells in york for child proceedings. During the time we had 3 different solicitors as people left. We also felt that we were constantly having to suggest things and research things rather than being adequately led by the solicitors during a complicated legal proceedure. Without the help of a different solicitor pro bono we wouldnt have been able to finish our case. They did however communicate well with barristers in a different area for us which was very good.

We also felt that despite spending a huge amount 70k and getting a good result that the solicitors were not always helpful with helping us with managing our costs. At several times during the proceedings we were told unless we paid the bill which could often be 8k in 1 month that they were not going to do any more work for us. We felt this unfair amd hard considering we paid as much as we could every month sometimes up to 4k monthly. If money was ever mentioned by us their immediate response was we can stop if you would like to transfer the case elsewhere or seek legal aid. How do they expect normal people to manage these things. Laterly they then said that they were going to add interest onto the remaining amount which would further add to a stressful time and put the family further in debt. I understand that they are due their money however thought this could have been done with more sensitivity. Especialy considering no one expected the case to be as expensive as it turned out to be.
My advise would be to discuss this prior to using them. The price of legal representation is appauling.

I am very grateful to Harrowells, especially so Mr Black, he was professional, honest, knowledgeable and very reliable. He helped me with a home sale, and the results were better than I hoped, because of the effort he put in. I am very happy with the cost, and the service I received from this company. I entirely recommend them, have trust in knowing they will do the best they can for their clients. Many thanks.

Avoid Avoid Avoid!!! Completely dishonest practice from Matthew Hayward. Do not buy any commercial property linked to Matthew Hayward unless you want to spend thousands on a solicitor for no reason. Very smug on the phone when confronted with his dishonesty and just quips ‘well thats where we are at’ . Took the sale all the way to authorising signatures only to find he doesn't have the authority to sell only to be passed over to the auctioneer where ultimately the sale fell through. Wasted one week and £900 with Matthew for nothing when he should have passed me over to the auctioneer from the start. Very unprofessional and rather rude seems to think he can act with impunity as he is covered by the law.

Appalling service from the commercial property department - used to be one of the city’s leading legal firms. Don’t answer emails & finally after 8 months I went elsewhere (thank you to CSK for such a prompt service & answering emails!). To be honest, I came to the conclusion that Harrowells only want to act for the big players with deep pockets - if that’s the case, I’d rather they had said that in the first place. Unfortunately Harrowells have now lost out on acting for me on the sale of 3 new build houses I am currently building and the purchase of development land that I’m currently looking at.